Saturday, May 28, 2005

The Coleman Report

UPDATE 2012: I got an electronic copy of the Coleman Report, and uploaded it to Scribd here, and to Google Docs here.
Original post:
The most famous study in the history of education is the so-called Coleman Report -- James Coleman, Equality of Educational Opportunity. As one article describes it:

An obscure provision in the 1964 Civil Rights Act called for a study of inequality of opportunity in education "by reason of race, color, religion, or national origin." The general assumption of educators, indeed Coleman's assumption, was that the funding differences between black and white schools would be large, and that these differences would provide the central explanation for unequal achievements of blacks and whites. In 1966, after conducting what was then the second largest social science research project in history -- involving 600,000 children in 4,000 schools nationally -- Coleman and his colleagues issued Equality of Educational Opportunity. It became, according to journalist Nicholas Lemann, "probably the single best-known piece of quantitative social science in American history," and it contained a number of surprising findings. First, the disparities in funding between schools attended by blacks and whites were far smaller than anticipated. Second, funding was not closely related to achievement; fam ily economic status was far more predictive. Third, a different kind of resource-peers-mattered a great deal. Going to school with middle-class peers was an advantage, while going to school with lower-class peers was a disadvantage, above and beyond an individual's family circumstances.

I'm therefore somewhat surprised that I can't seem to find any way to purchase a copy of that study. I've looked on Amazon and Abebooks, but haven't had any luck thus far. I understand that the study was some 700 pages long, and I find it hard to imagine that no one has ever published it in book form. Yet nothing of that sort seems to be available. I do have a copy of a book collecting several further studies and comments on Coleman's work: On Equality of Educational Opportunity, edited by Pat Moynihan and Frederick Mosteller in 1972. But as yet, I can't find a way to buy the original study itself. Anyone know of any clues here?

6 Comments:

The University of New Hampshire Library has this as a government document originally published by the (then) Office of Education in HEW. It wouldn't help you buy it, but you might be able to put your hands on a copy at a Federal Depository Library (see the GPO website to find one near you).

I’m a 1968 Vietnam War Veteran. As a gift to myself because it is Memorial Day, I’m writing this letter in hopes to help stop the war from spreading to Syria and or Iran.

The war with Iraq was started so America could steal the oil from Iraq.In order to trick the American people into thinking we went to war for an honorable reason the government used two lies. 1. Iraq was part of the evil of terror that caused the September 11, 2001 attack.2. Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, and was planning to use them against America.

The current propaganda is that America’s military is stupid because they didn’t have enough soldiers to fight the war and had no exit plan to end the war.

Those who “are behind the scene and control America’s military” are NOT stupid. The military/government is controlled by some of the smartest minds in the world. Those “behind the scene mind,s” get together in “Think Tanks” and are “continuously” planning for power and money making opportunities.

Common Sense Example:If the Iraq war would have been over in 6 months and America would have exited Iraq shortly there after, the power and money-making minds could no longer steal Iraq’s oil.

I make the above statements about the “Think Tanks” based on 2 non-fiction books.

1. “A Beautiful Mind” by Sylvia Nasar, See Index page 447. Read all subheading pages listed under “games:” and you will understand that American soldiers are being killed in Iraq NOT because America’s military controllers are stupid.

2. “Public Intellectuals” by current U.S. Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals Judge, Richard A. Posner. Pages 34, 35, and I’m paraphrasing. Think Tanks hire specialists and encourage specialization towards legislators, officials, lobbyists and other members of the political establishment. Page 364, verbatim. Recently a number of Reagan and Bush judicial appointees have been criticized for accepting invitations to seminars sponsored by conservative think tanks; it has even been argued that some of their votes in cases have been swayed by the conservative “brainwashing” they received there.

Sincerely,Carl G. Mueller, Nam 68

PS.C-Span’s Q & A, televised May 29, 2005. http://www.q-and-a.org/Transcript/?ProgramID=1025 The New York Times self publicized conscience, Op-Ed columnist Bob Herbert and author Brian Lamb, gave an excellent example of the brainwashed media being to gutless to say anything more direct then; “We went to war for oil.”

Those who “are behind the scene and control America’s military” do NOT give a dam about human lives, so why should anyone believe New York Times Op-Ed columnist Bob Herbert when he says writing letters, passing out flyers, getting signatures on petitions and voting in some newer politicians could make a change for the better? American lawmakers and those behind the scene need bigger personalized eye openers then Herbert suggests before their will be any major changes towards America’s military and the behind the scene involvements in Middle Eastern oil money. I make those statements about the gutless media and those behind the scene not giving a dam about human lives based on 2 non-fiction books.

Gutless Media:

1. “Breach Of Trust: How Washington Turns Outsiders Into Insiders” by current U.S. Senator of Oklahoma, Tom A. Coburn, M.D. Page 163, verbatim. “The fact is, the press decided that the best story was not about the manipulations of congress but the gossip of the dirty details of Republican infighting. This shows the failure of the modern-day media to serve their intended purpose.”

Do NOT give a dam about human lives:

2. “Inheriting Syria” by Flynt Leverett who is a senior fellow at the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institutional Think Tank. Mr. Leverett was or still is a Middle Easter analyst for the CIA. Page 137, verbatim. “Anxiety within the regime was surely increased by Secretary Rumsfeld’s statements in March suggesting that Syria might be the next target for a U.S.-led campaign of coercive regime change.” (Sentence has strong supporting footnotes)

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